Powered by two second-place finishes and a third-place finish, W.F. West was able to nab the 2A District IV Boys Tennis Tournament for the first time since 2013 at Mint Valley Racquet & Fitness Club Friday in Longview.
Junior Joseph Chung and the Bearcats’ doubles duo of Christian Iverson and Cade Cameron each netted second-place finishes, while freshman Justin Chung garnered third-place on the singles side.
Joseph defeated Washougals Wyatt Sims (6-2, 6-1) in the semifinal round to advance to the singles championship, while Justin lost to Mark Morris senior Ben Haukkas in the other semifinal (6-0, 6-0).
That set up a matchup between Joseph and Haukkas, who was state champion in doubles his sophomore year. Haukkas defeated Joseph 6-1, 6-2, for the title.
“Winning three games is probably the most anyone has won against Haukkas all year,” W.F. West coach Jack State said. “Haukkas’s consistency and placement is really good.”
In the third-place game, Justin defeated Sims 6-2, 6-4, and in a normal year, both Joseph and Justin would have earned spots at the 2A state tournament.
On the doubles side, W.F. West’s Christian Iverson and Cade Cameron defeated Ridgefield’s Ryan Gruber and Mike Nester (6-3, 6-2) to advance to the title match. In the other semifinal, Jacob Blomdahl and Aaron Boggess lost to Fort Vancouver’s Sam Crawford and Jeffrey Truong (6-2, 6-7, 6-1). Iverson and Cameron lost the title match to Crawford and Truong, 6-1, 6-2.
“Crawford and Truong were red-hot,” State said. “They were on fire. They didn’t hardly miss a serve.”
W.F. West finished with 26 points for first place, Mark Morris and Fort Vancouver tied for second with 10 points and Ridgefield was fourth with six points. It was a rewarding way to end the shortened season for the undefeated Bearcats, who were league champs, sub-district champs and now league champs, State said.
